Day: October 4, 2021

Islamabad, October 04, 2021 (PPI-OT): President Dr. Arif Alvi has sent letters to media houses and journalists in the country, urging them to join hands with the government and civil society in raising awareness about breast cancer. The president asked the media organizations to create awareness through public welfare messages, talk shows and newspaper articles during the entire month of October, the President Office said on Monday. President Alvi in his letter mentioned that breast cancer accounted for 44 percent of cancer cases among women in Pakistan and fifty percent of them died due to lack of early diagnosis. He said early diagnosis could provide 98 percent chances for the women patients to get rid of the disease.

 

He said the subject remained a taboo in the society and restricted the women to get themselves the required medical consultation. He stressed that women should be encouraged to self-check once in every three months as 50,000 out of 100,000 women die due to late diagnosis. The president said his wife Samina Alvi and her team had organized various awareness programmes in October, aimed at highlighting the importance of self-diagnosis to minimize the chances of breast cancer. Last year, he said, the media in the country launched an effective awareness campaign to educate people about breast cancer. He advised the media organizations to paint their logos ‘pink’ as a symbol to highlight the issue of breast cancer.

 

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Islamabad, October 04, 2021 (PPI-OT): Dr Arif Alvi has said that steps are being taken to provide a congenial business environment so as to attract foreign investment in the country. He added that reforms initiated by the Government to improve the ease of doing business had delivered results and Pakistan’s rank in international rankings had improved from 136th position to 108th position. The President made these remarks while talking a delegation of the Quetta Chamber of Commerce and Industry (QCCI), led by President QCCI, Mr Fida Hussain Dashti, which called on him, at Aiwan-e-Sadr, today.

 

Talking to the delegation, the President said that the Government was focusing on facilitating and strengthening the business and the industrial sectors and in this regard, had provided maximum relief to the trader community and other vulnerable segments of society during the COVID-19 pandemic. He highlighted that the Government had allocated Rs 100 billion under the Kamyab Jawan Program in order to promote entrepreneurship and Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in the country and provide business loans to youth on easy terms and conditions. The delegation informed the President about the contributions of the Quetta’s business community in the national economy, besides apprising him about the issues being faced by them. The President assured the delegation to help address their problems.

 

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Islamabad, October 04, 2021 (PPI-OT): Institute of Space Technology (IST), Pakistan is celebrating World Space Week (WSW) among more than 95 countries around the globe from October 4-10, 202. A virtual ceremony was held to mark the inauguration of “Women in Space” themed World Space Week 2021, at Institute of Space Technology. Vice Chancellor – Institute of Space Technology – Maj. Gen. (Retd.) Rehan Abdul Baqi – HI (M) officiated the celebrations at IST. Speaking to the participating students and their faculty members, he especially commended the efforts of faculty for inciting an interest in the young inquisitive minds for space technology.

 

He highlighted the firm role of women in the advancement of space science and technology in Pakistan. More than 4000 participants from 100+ schools, colleges and universities of Pakistan are participating in 191 space themed competitions, webinars and trainings in a week-long activity being organized by Institute of Space Technology. The celebrations are in line with the United Nations deceleration of World Space Week from October 4-10, to educate people about the bounties of space and to encourage greater use of space technology for sustainable socio-economic development.

 

This year the world is celebrating the accomplishments and contributions of women to the space sector. SUPARCO being the National Space Agency of Pakistan is the National Coordinator for World Space Week celebrations. The WSW 2021 at IST is co-organized by the National Center of GIS and Space Applications’ (NCGSA) initiative of Space Awareness and Outreach, a project spear headed by the Higher Education Commission of Pakistan. The Chairman NCGSA Dr. Najam Abbas Naqvi also attended the inauguration ceremony and introduced the especially crafted “Women in Space” themed modules of WSW 2021.

 

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Srinagar, October 04, 2021 (PPI-OT): In Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir, the south Kashmir’s Kulgam district once known as the rice bowl of Kashmir, has lost fifty percent of its paddy land to non-agriculture uses in the last two decades. In most of the paddy land, we see commercial structures and this is a worrisome trend, an Agriculture Official told media men.

 

The official data said that 22,000 hectares in the Kulgam district are presently under paddy cultivation, which yield Rs 237 crore annually. “In 2002 it had around 44,000 hectares under paddy cultivation in the district,” an official said. The Home-Shalibugh belt of the district comprising Frisal, Yaripora, Qaimoh situate along the Nadi canal was known as one of the major producers of quality rice in the Kashmir valley.

 

The famous rice research institute of SKAUST is also located at Khudwani- Qaimoh in the district. Sources said people in the district of late have been converting vast paddy fields into apple orchards for commercial purposes. Apple gets more returns than rice do.

 

A decade back, Muhammad Shaban, a marginal farmer from Kujar village would toil hard to eke out a living from the paddy fields. However, he was struggling to meet both ends. Now, a decade later, Shaban’s apple orchard spread over 8 kanals of land has brought fortunes to him.

 

“After putting in so much effort, the income generated from rice sale would barely meet the expenses of my family. But after I switched to apple cultivation our financial condition has improved,” he said.

 

However, according to experts, “shift to fruit cultivation” is not the only reason for the fall in the production of rice. The conversion of agricultural land continues unabated for non-agriculture purposes in absence of monitoring by the government. “In most of the paddy land, we see commercial structures and this is a worrisome trend,” an Agriculture Official told media men.

 

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Geneva, October 04, 2021 (PPI-OT): Pakistan has urged the UN Human Rights Council to speak and stand up for people struggling to free themselves from occupation, including Kashmiris, and to realize their right to self-determination. Ambassador Khalil Hashmi, the permanent representative of Pakistan to the UN offices speaking in the 47-member Council in Geneva, said that the human rights situation in Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) had gone from bad to worse following India’s annexation of the disputed territory on 5 August 2019.

 

Ambassador Hashmi was speaking in a debate during which implementation of the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action (VDPA) was reviewed. The VDPA provisions, he pointed out, are unequivocal that foreign occupation was a systemic obstacle to realization and enjoyment of basic rights, adding that such UN-recognized situations constituted “hotspots of gruesome atrocities, being fed by pervasive impunity afforded to occupation regimes.”

 

“The nexus between the deplorable human rights abuses, Indian occupation and its illegal demographic changes in occupied Kashmir, is just one case in point,” the Pakistani envoy said. India, he said, had scaled up its suppression of the Kashmiri people flouting all fundamental human rights norms, principles and international law, with death in every neighbourhood, as Indian forces continue to terrorize, summarily kill, and demolish homes with full impunity.

 

“In imposing a ‘final solution’ through military force, the Hindutva regime is systematically disenfranchising the Kashmiri people of their right to freely pursue their socio-economic and cultural development,” Ambassador Khalil said. Kashmiri lands, property, and natural resources were being doled out to non-Kashmiri Indian entities, and administrative rules eased for Indian army to illegally grab lands.

 

Despite mounting unemployment caused by the world’s longest running military siege, local jobs have been opened for foreign settlers, he said. India had also changed the status of Urdu and Kashmiri languages associated with Muslims, and their identity.

 

“The ultimate aim of India’s illegal steps is to make the Kashmiri majority into a minority in their own homeland, and to prevent them from exercising their right to self-determination,” the Pakistani envoy said, urging the UN human rights machinery, civil society and global media to continue to chronicle these signs.

 

“We once again call on India comply with its obligations under international law by reversing its illegal actions taken since August 2019 and uphold fundamental rights of the Kashmiri people, in particular their inalienable right to self-determination,” he added.

 

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Srinagar, October 04, 2021 (PPI-OT): In Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir, Qasim Sajjad, brother-in-law of prominent leader of Jammu and Kashmir Peoples League (JKPL), Zahoor Ahmad Sheikh, passed away in Islamabad town, today. He was 75.

 

Qasim Sajjad was a well-known journalist, writer and poet of the occupied territory. The JKPL Chairman, Mukhtar Ahmad Waza in a statement issued in Srinagar, while expressing grief and sorrow over the demise of Mr Qasim Sajjad, said that in Kashmir’s literary circles, his demise has been termed as an irreparable loss.

 

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Dehradun, October 04, 2021 (PPI-OT): The Hindutva terrorists vandalised a church and injured several Christians in Indian disturbed state Uttarakhand. Over 200 men and women of Hindutva right-wing groups, vandalised a church in Roorkee-Dehradun area of the state. Several people who had assembled for morning prayers in the church were injured.

 

According to the FIR registered by Prio Sadhana Lanse, the church pastor’s wife said that over 200 men and women belonging to the local Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), Bajrang Dal and Bharatiya Janata Party’s youth wing, barged into the church and started vandalising it and beat up the churchgoers.

 

The armed mob with iron roads, destroyed chairs, tables, musical instruments and photographs that were in the church. Speaking to media, Lanse said that the attackers went on a rampage and smashed everything that came in their way.

 

“The frenzied mob, shouting slogans like ‘Vande mataram’ and ‘Bharat mata ki jai’, barged into the church, which is on the first floor of the building,” Lanse said. “They started beating our volunteers and the women attackers bashed up our womenfolk.”

 

The vandalism went on for over 40 minutes and Rajat, a church volunteer, suffered serious head injuries. He has been shifted to a Dehradun government hospital where his condition is stated to be critical.

 

Lanse also said that the women present, including her daughter Pearl, were inappropriately touched by the attackers. Another church follower, Akshi Chauhan, confirmed this. “I saw that an aged man had forcibly hugged Pearl and she was struggling to free herself. When I went to rescue her (Pearl), an attacker asked me what I, being a Hindu, was doing in the church,” Chauhan told the press. The Hindu terrorist then dragged Chauhan away by her hair and beat her.

 

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